Brussels wants to quickly push the climate plans ‘to make a good decorative in November during the UN climate summit in Brazil’. Yet few respondents (16 percent) think that all Member States will agree. Even fewer readers (8 percent) themselves stand behind the EU climate goal of 90% less greenhouse gas emissions in 2040 compared to 1990. A respondent: “As far as I’m concerned, the goals that are currently defined are not correct. Periods.
Many respondents point out that as an EU it makes little sense to meet strict climate requirements as long as other major players in the world are involved. A participant calls the ‘Water wearing water’: “It makes little sense if we cannot achieve that all countries participate. And certainly if the US and China do not participate. This can only work if the whole world contributes.” Someone else: “Those strict demands will help as long as China and other countries just go their own way? We are completely flattened our economy. Companies are leaving and no houses are being built. If we continue like this, we will become a third world country.” A drop on a glowing plate, another reader calls the plans: “The climate goals set are not realizable, costs too much money and do not improve the economy, since there are countries, think of China and India, who are not going to contribute to it.”
Of the participants in the statement, 93 percent think that the Netherlands does not strictly adhere to the EU climate goals. A respondent: “On the globe our country is not visible, we are so small. Did you think our straps put some weight in the scale compared to that of China, Russia, India and Brazil?” About a quarter believe that countries that want to do less to climate policy, such as Poland, Italy and Hungary, should be tackled harder. A third of the respondents would accept it if the goals are relaxed for some countries to reach a compromise. A reader: “Not Poland, Italy and Hungary must be tackled, but the people who come up with this kind of ‘climate zone’ and therefore want to push the plans. Do they not realize that you cannot wring out a stone?”
A reader finds it strange that the bar is being raised even higher while the current climate plans are already unrealistic. Someone else is also surprised: “The plans are unrealistic, too expensive and bad for the economy. We talk, talk and talk and make plans, but this is never possible? Then we have to go back to horse and carriage, no longer fly, no more industry and so on. It is impossible.”